Batman and “Bitches”

Some discussion has emerged concerning the language used in Batman: Arkham City. The language is unpleasant.

But then again so is nearly everything in noir and hard boiled fiction.

I don't intend this piece to defend Rocksteady's usage of language. However, I do think that part of what informs its usage concerns the overarching philosophy of the genre that the Batman mythos emerges from, hard boiled pulp and film noir. Unlike some genres, which aren't often governed by a central philosophy (though there are other subgenres that, like noir, do find themselves entrenched in a "position" or world view, cyberpunk, for example, is very much anti-corporate on the whole), noir is very much expressive of a particular brand of cynicism that suggests that few, if any, human beings are anything more than creeps. So, this piece is really an attempt to trace the history of noir and hard boiled attitudes through their evolution into neonoir and how Batman as an exemplum of the genre's adherence to its philosophy emerges contemporarily.

Writing this piece was weird because I grew up on a steady diet of comic books and film noir. I know Batman and American crime stories rather well, and I kind of forgot that I did.

Batman and “Bitches”